Dixie Kid a nearly lost piece of American history: professor

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Dixie Kid a nearly lost piece of American history: professor

He was a welterweight so tough and scrappy that he often boxed above his weight class.

Some of his in-the-ring shenanigans were later adopted Muhammad Ali and others.

But these days, little information remains about Dixie Kid, a Missouri-born athlete who battled addiction and died after jumping out a window.

Cathy van Ingen, associate professor of Kinesiology, has delved into the mystery of Aaron Lister Brown, who went from being an international celebrity to living on hand outs. The result is her chapter in the recently released book The First Black Boxing Champions: Essays on Fighters of the 1800s to the 1920s. It is the first documented biography of Dixie Kid.